Wendalane Farms » Beds

Leaning Towards Sunflowers

Bob — Fri, 25 Jun 2010 14:53:50 +0000

It’s always neat to watch Sunflowers track the sun. After they’ve established themselves and get to a certain size you’ll see the heads always pointing towards the sun. Here the sun is going down and you can see the sunflower head dipping down as it goes.

Before and After

Bob — Sat, 15 Aug 2009 12:24:24 +0000

I’ve been meaning to take more of these types of shots to show just how much things can change in two months. Yep, that’s the same bed from almost the same angle.

Don’t Step on the Flowers

Bob — Sun, 05 Jul 2009 13:49:05 +0000

So between the kids, dog, cats, guests, and wildlife we often get the question about flowers getting stepped on. Yes it happens. The solution so far works great, we simply grow more than we need and don’t sweat it when it happens.

Zinnia Plugs

Bob — Sat, 06 Jun 2009 12:27:29 +0000

It’s about time we start to post pictures of things actually growing. Here you see some newly planted zinnia plugs straight from the greenhouse into the dirt. It will take a bit for them to “catch” but once the roots get down good and we get some hot weather they’ll soon fill the bed with greenery and flowers.

More Bed Prep

Bob — Sat, 30 May 2009 12:25:25 +0000

More and more manure. More and more tilling. There isn’t a whole lot to look at that isn’t brown at this time of year unless you walk up real close to the beds. Here we prep one of the few remaining beds for this season. Just a few more to go after this one and all the dirt is done!

Fertilization

Bob — Mon, 20 Apr 2009 10:25:12 +0000

All of our nutrient inputs come in the form of composted cow, sheep, and goat manure. Each year in April we have a number of loads of cow manure delivered from the neighbour, and we mix that with our pile of sheep and goat manure. That pile gets flipped about 3 times over 12 months, and the following year we have some really nice compost. Now we’re in the process of tilling in a liberal amount on the beds we’ll be seeding into first.

Frozen Anticipation

Bob — Mon, 02 Mar 2009 12:44:34 +0000

In the fall we decided to change up a little how our flower rows were organized. Using the small tractor with the tiller I put under some sections of sod to expand our 5 row system into two large beds, and a single row down the middle. We’re not sure how well this will work, but it gives us the growing space we’ll need for the upcoming season.

Frost on Furrows

Bob — Sun, 15 Feb 2009 13:51:22 +0000

Our best growing area is located where the cows used to stand. Many years ago, when this was a working dairy farm, the dry cows (those not being milked) were put out to the front pasture where they spent a great deal of time chewing cud and making manure. What is now our best garden is where the cows used to stand most of the time, hence the soil here is rich and deep, with good tilth. Our goal has been to amend the clay on the rest of our flower growing areas with composted manure and cover crops to become more like this patch of ground. After five years the soil quality everywhere has begun to improve greatly. This time of year it’s easy to be fooled when looking out the kitchen window. Spring seems like it may be arriving early, but even though the sun is shining those furrows are still frozen solid.